Category: Collecting

Human Subjects and IRB Review

Human Subjects and IRB Review Oral History, Human Subjects, and Institutional Review Boards by Linda Shopes Since at least the mid-1990s, college and university students, faculty, and staff who conduct oral history interviews have increasingly found their interviewing protocols subject to review by their local Institutional Review Board (commonly referred to as an IRB), a …

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Making Sense of Oral History

Making Sense of Oral History by Linda Shopes Making Sense of Oral History offers a place for students and teachers to begin working with oral history interviews as historical evidence. Written by Linda Shopes, this guide presents an overview of oral history and ways historians use it, tips on what questions to ask when reading …

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Quick Tips for Better Interview Video

Quick Tips for Better Interview Video by Scott Pennington and Dean Rehberger Moving from audio only to video and audio recording is not a small transition. Frame composition, lighting, and background are only a few of the considerations now affecting oral history recording that previously- when only recording audio- were of less importance. With that …

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File Naming in the Digital Age

File Naming in the Digital Age by Dean Rehberger and Brendan Coates Librarians and Archivists know well the importance of consistent file naming.  When dealing with thousands (if not millions) of digital objects, having names that are both machine and human readable can keep a world close to chaos, stable and usable. However, many of …

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Video Age

Case Study: Oral History in the Video Age By Peter B. Kaufman Intelligent Television Picture an airplane flight across an ocean at night: as the sky darkens, dinner is served, and then the most noticeable thing about the plane is almost everyone sitting lit by the video screens in front of them.  In many ways …

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Permanent link to this article: /2012/07/video-age/

Case Study: Columbia University Oral History Master’s Program and Digital Projects

Case Study: Columbia University Oral History Master’s Program and Digital Projects by Marie Scatena My experience with oral history and digital humanities originated in public history projects at the Chicago History Museum.  Privileged to have had the support of  colleagues and mentors there including the legendary Studs Terkel, I was eager to be part of …

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Civil Rights Oral History

Case Study: The Civil Rights Oral History Survey Project by Timothy Lloyd A critical first step in any research project, and an excellent means for gaining at least a beginning form of intellectual control over one’s subject, is to survey the research that has already been done on the topic. This report summarizes a recent …

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The Kentucky Oral History Commission

Case Study: The Kentucky Oral History Commission — the Digital Shift by Sarah Milligan  Looking back over a 35+ year granting agency specifically designed to support the documentation of oral history interviews, there have been many changes and adaptations to needs, both cultural and technological. My entrance into the Kentucky Oral History Commission (KOHC) staff …

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Using video in oral history

Case Study: Using video in oral history— learning from one woman’s experiences by Joanna Hay To video or not to video, that is the question. Oral historians continue to discuss the use of video: its benefits and its pitfalls. There are significant additional costs and technical challenges with video, and oral historians are justifiably cautious …

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